There’s a new player in Quebec’s vegan burger game. Vegeat launched on Friday, and hopes to offer local competition to fake-meat giants Beyond Meat and Lightlife.

“I’m both relieved and excited,” said company founder François Cardinal, who watched some of the first customers pick his products off the shelves over the weekend.

Vegeat burgers and plant-based ground beef are on sale at IGA, Rachelle-Béry, Tradition and Bonichoix stores, all of which are owned by Sobeys; Cardinal has signed a deal to sell Vegeat products exclusively through the company’s retailers in Quebec and New Brunswick.

With competitive prices ($4.99 for two burgers, $9.99 for 400g of ground), he believes that Vegeat will be able to carve out a place for itself in a growing industry.

“I’m really proud,” he said. “Our products are prepared in Quebec. We’ve been working on the taste and texture, and now people are starting to know we’re here. The objective is to bring innovation, and we will be able to launch all our products across the Sobeys network. I’m really happy about the partnership.”

Cardinal began working on the concept for Vegeat two years ago. The entrepreneur and chef has extensive experience in the restaurant industry; he was on the road a lot for work, and began to notice that vegan eats were gaining in popularity.

“I had the chance to travel to Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere in Canada,” he said, “and I saw that the plant-based movement was really taking hold.”

Cardinal has an 11-year-old daughter, and his partner has two boys, ages 10 and 16. He describes their diet as flexitarian, with a decreasing focus on meat and a growing interest in vegetarian meals.

He wanted a burger that would appeal to vegans and meat-eaters, alike. So he went looking for help.

“I realized that despite being a chef, originally, I didn’t have the connections to create a product. I hired a specialist in research and development, who works with me and allows me to create products and finalize recipes.”

Of prime importance was creating flavours and a presentation that were familiar to carnivores, in order to offer viable alternatives to meat. As such, Vegeat products attempt to strike a balance between health-consciousness and comfort-food appeal.

“There are certain taste vectors that consumers like,” Cardinal said. “We wanted to make sure to get the taste and texture right, to make things that consumers already know. So the products have some fat and salt, for flavour; but all that, together, makes for a really interesting taste and texture.

“If we wanted to create a product with no fat, it would be very dry. The consumer wouldn’t get on board. It’s important to maintain those vectors, while keeping the fat and sodium as low as possible.”

Pea protein comprises 85 per cent of the sodium in Vegeat products, according to Cardinal. All of it is naturally occurring; there is no added salt.

Cardinal was looking for a Quebec-based or Canadian supplier for his pea protein, but there are none as of yet, since there are no factories dedicated to the process. That is something Cardinal expressed interest in looking into, down the line. For the moment, he is happy to be able to say that his products are certified as “prepared in Quebec.”

To create his vegan burger, Cardinal realized he needed vegan ground beef; then he decided it would be silly not to sell the latter on its own, as well.

In January, Vegeat won the DUX prize, recognizing initiatives promoting healthy eating. Offers poured in, after that, and talks began in earnest with Sobeys. Things moved quickly from there, and they continue to.

Cardinal hopes to launch up to three more Vegeat products in the coming year; next in line is a plant-based sausage.

Demand has been strong, so far. Cardinal said he has already received requests from the U.S., Brazil and Japan, but first he wants to focus on getting his company off to a sold start on home turf.

“I see us as a really good local player,” he said. “We’re going to go step by step. I just want to make sure the execution follows, at each stage. We have a national plan, but for the moment it’s important to solidify what we have before looking at other markets.”

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